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US Horsemeat Makes its Way to European Union

Health concerns raised over dangerous drugs

American horses are sold to slaughter factories in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. Many are concerned that the slaughtered American horses, which were not raised for human consumption, eventually make their way into the food chain and could pose serious health concerns.

Horse slaughter factories for human consumption once existed in America; there were three factories owned by foreign companies.

The factories shipped the horsemeat to the world’s top horsemeat consumers—Europe and Japan—where eating horsemeat is considered a delicacy, or at least normal. Two of the U.S. factories were in Texas, and one was in Illinois.

In 2006, the U.S. Department of Agriculture wanted to close U.S. horse slaughter factories, so they removed funding for the required meat inspections. The slaughterhouses were forced to pay for inspections out-of-pocket until the Supreme Court ruled that slaughterhouses could not pay for their own inspections.

The two Texas plants closed first, and the Illinois plant closed in 2007. Since then, there have been some unsuccessful efforts and petitions to get horse slaughterhouses operating in the United States again.

Yet even with the ban on horse slaughterhouses in the United States, U.S. horses were still being sold and slaughtered in other countries.

“People will take their horses to auction, and many think they will get a wonderful home,” said Valerie Pringle, equine protection specialist at the Humane Society of the United States. “Many are bought by kill buyers and those kill buyers shove them onto trucks and take them to either Canada or Mexico.”

The horse gets a green ticket on their back end, indicating that they are slated to be slaughtered. Wild horses, however, cannot be sold for slaughter. The buyer must sign a contract stating that they will not kill the wild horse, according to Pringle.

She said that wild horses are protected in the United States, but that they “keep finding evidence of them showing up for slaughter.”

The Human Society published an investigation in October 2012 into the availability of horsemeat in Belgium, France, and the Netherlands. The report states that Canada and Mexico were the two top horsemeat exporters. This was before the current scandal broke which has revealed that meat producers across Europe, in countries where horse is not normally consumed, are falsely selling horse in products labeled as beef.

What’s in US Horsemeat?

Pringle pointed out that cattle get a tag in the ear at birth, and every single kind of medication and treatment they receive is documented and recorded. Horses in the United States, however, do not. Owners and veterinarians are not required to keep a record for their horse, either.

“The problem with horses in the U.S. is that their drug histories aren’t tracked,” she said.

According to Pringle, U.S. horses are given a lot of drugs in their lifetime. Some drugs that the horses receive are legal such as Phenylbutazone, also known as bute, which is a pain and fever reducer for animals.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prohibits bute from being used in food-producing animals intended for human consumption, and according to the FDA, only dogs and horses are allowed to receive the drug.

Pringle said that horses typically live for 20–30 years. Because of their long lifespans, it is common for them to undergo many medical treatments.

“Use in horses is limited to use in horses not intended for food. There are currently no approved uses of Phenylbutazone in food-producing animals,” states an official FDA announcement from 2003.

“Phenylbutazone is known to induce blood dyscrasias, including aplastic anemia, leukopenia, agranulocytosis, thrombocytopenia, and deaths,” according to the FDA.

“Hypersensitivity reactions of the serum-sickness type have also been reported. In addition, Phenylbutazone is a carcinogen, as determined by the National Toxicology Program,” states the announcement.

In 1949, Phenylbutazone was marketed for people to use for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and gout, but once people started to experience “severe toxic reactions,” the drug was taken off the market and banned, according to the FDA.

Other drugs U.S. horses receive are not legal.

Some racehorses are given “cobra venom, cocaine, [or] south American tree frog juice, which is 40 times as strong as morphine and masks the pain so if their leg is compromised they can still run on it,” Pringle said.

The horse slaughter border business works something like this: the horses are bought at an auction, crammed onto a truck, and transported south or north, and something like a shipper’s certificate is signed, according to Pringle.

“It says, ‘As the owner of this horse, to the best of my knowledge, this horse has never received any banned drugs,’” she said about the certificate.

However, the new owners have only owned the horses for 24 hours.

“They sign this affidavit to the best of their knowledge,” Pringle said. “That is how they are allowed over the border. You can see it’s ripe for fraud.”

EU Strengthening Their Food Origin Traceability

Europe’s horsemeat scandal found fraud in the labeling of beef products. Europe’s supermarket shelves contained beef labeled solely “beef,” but traces of horsemeat were found in the beef.

According to European Union rules, that labeling is misleading. In mid-February 2013, EU Health and Consumer Policy Commissioner Tonio Borg “called for a reinforcement of DNA and Phenylbutazone tests throughout the EU,” according to an official Feb. 15 memo.

The EU and Canada have also banned bute from being administered to food-producing animals.

The EU gets the majority of their horsemeat from Canada and Mexico, and the majority of that is from American horses, according to Pringle.

“I would want to question the safety of that meat … if these American horses have gotten in the food chain,” she said

In 2010, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) set new rules on horsemeat exports after the EU Food and Veterinary Office discovered that the Canadian system and others did not have records for their horses, according to a USDA Foreign Agricultural Service Global Agriculture Information Network report.

“The audit found that there was no system to segregate horses for food from those
in the general population,” the reported states.

Now, any horse in a Canadian slaughterhouse must have an Equine Information Document. The document asks for the medical records of the horse for the past 180 days or “during the time you owned the animal,” according to the CFIA website.

I wish people would stick to the facts and not make things up to make the case against horse slaughter look better. The actual facts are damning enough. The more lies we tell the more reason the pro slaughter side has to dismiss everything we say.

Valerie Pringle of HSUH puts forward a complete fabrication when she states that all cattle get an ear tag at birth and have every single medication recorded. I’ve been in the cattle business for a few decades now and have worked with ISU Extension to help cattle producers with best practices and new technologies.

While it is true that most cattle are tagged within a day or two of birth, it is rare to find a cattle producer who records every medication an animal gets. Those raising for the organic trade would be the exception. Otherwise it is totally unnecessary for a cattleman to record every medical treatment given to cattle.

Cattle don’t have banned and dangerous drugs available to them. Their vet can’t sell them something like bute. Every bovine is treated as if it is being raised for food, even if it is going to be a star breeding animal and never go to slaughter. Vets are limited in what drugs they can sell for cattle. The pre-slaughter withdrawal periods for cattle drugs are quite short, a couple days to a week at most. Wormers require a longer withdrawal, but are not done as frequently as we do with horses.

Cattlemen usually have a target date for marketing the cattle and base their medication choices on being past the withdrawal period by that date. No record keeping necessary with this system. They may mark a calendar with treatment dates when the whole herd is treated. If they are treating an animal or two for illness they will be brought up to a “sick pen” to make treating easier, because cattle are usually handled as a herd. You don’t go catch one and lead it to the barn. When an animal is released from the sick pen that may be recorded on a calendar so they know when that animal is clear.

And how many cattlemen own equines? How many misuse equine drugs to treat their cattle to get those cattle to market? How many vets look the other way for their clients?

I agree and respect everything you have posted.

Thank you.

p.s. You need to have a coup at the NCBA, USMEF and Farm Bureaus….or start your own professional ag orgs. These twits will be the ruination of ethical and humane meat producers. Anti ALL meaters? Stow it.

Denise why do you thing cattlemen would use equine drugs when we have drugs designed specifically for cattle that are proven safe and effective and have short legal withdrawal times? I don’t understand your thinking.

We own a small beef cattle operation and horses. We never, ever get their medications, wormers, feed or supplements mixed up. We don’t support horse slaughter, and all of our current horses were rescued from going to a kill buyer.

I’m sure most beef producers don’t want more scrutiny than we already have (which seems like more scrutiny than they aim at sex offenders and pedophiles.) We have the FDA, USDA, State, County and township governments who all believe they should have a say in what we do on our property. We also don’t want more paper work or taxes. Many beef producers are just plain ignorant about horse slaughter, many of them still don’t know the dangers of bute. Many of them are also turned off by the “animal rights” groups who target all animal slaughter. They are tired of being vilified, and called names, and having accusations thrown at them, many of which I read on this site at least once a week. It doesn’t make people want to listen when you’ve called them names and accused them of being inhumane before you’ve begun the conversation.

I agree with everything Diana said in her post. It’s too bad the anti horse slaughter people don’t seem to want the cattle people on their side. It’s clear to some of us that horse slaughter doesn’t help beef producers, no matter what our feelings may be.

I am getting pretty angry! And unusual for me this strong, advocating for awhile. The thing is, I am so sick of the laughter & jokes about eating horse meat & the heinous horror of slaughter needed for consumption. How it makes “horse sense” to eat “sweet horse meat” that “tastes like venison,” & needed “steak for children in Ethiopia”…!! I just responded to my local newspaper, all for eating horse meat. No facts to backup, re health danger nor inhumane slaughter. Well, there is a silver lining in every darkness. It took awhile (needed to keep it required short:), but opportunity to educate on horse slaughter & consumption…& of course, very respectfully. The world-wide ignorance, in what it now appears, world-wide unknowingly eating horse flesh. Common sense, if throughout Europe, & now in Asia (Hong Kong), it is e-v-e-r–y-w-h-e-r-e.

thanks diana, for the insiders take..all food animals have restrictions and really that is the whole point..that isn’t the whole story of course..some of the story happens at the slaughter house..where the USDA vets are testing and rejecting cows that come in as downers, cancer ect. after the vet is gone for the night and on weekends and sometimes if there is enough incentive or alchohol involved..during the day…to say all vets are created equal is impossible–and that info comes first hand from a USDA vet in NM..the whole point is horses are worked ridden competed on and are prone to injury..so they get medications never seen by a food animal..nor will they ever be raised for food because they are not efficient converters of food stuff per pound of usable meat..statistics show that a horse has 25,000 invested in him over the course of his life

as is so clearly being pointed out in europe…horse slaughter is controlled by the criminal element..there is not a word yet to describe willing participants in this chain of events…maybe “Maggotor” combinaton of maggot and predator…yet both of those have a purpose in the wild…and evil in humans

If a horse was raised for slaughter his life would much shorter and he would have much less that that $25,000 invested in him. Still you would have more invested that what his meat would be worth.

Horses are generally athletes, workers, or companions. As athletes they receive all manner of performance enhancing and pain masking drugs. As workers they receive their share of drugs to manage pain and keep them going. As companions they often get into geriatric problems and are treated for such things as allergies, arthritis, anxiety, ulcers, insulin resistance, and I’ve even cared for a horse that was on medication for narcolepsy. They get supplements to keep their coat shiny, their hooves strong, their weight up or down as needed. Heck they get treated for about as many things as people do.

Cattle get as little medication as possible. They are treated for parasites, vaccinated for the basic diseases that young calves might catch, and treated with a fast acting antibiotic if they get sick. Not much more is needed to get a calf to market, and any excess treatments just cut down on profit.

It is ridiculous to compare a “normal” life of equine to that of a bovine.

Diana, your industry has a PR problem….I didn’t invent it. People like you need to fix it or people like me will stop buying it.

p.s. coat shiny is ridiculous too. Coat health is typically related to overall nutritional and sanitation health. There are great performance horses that have crappy feet….management is required. Sometimes older equines with geriatric disease look like shag carpets that haven’t been cleaned in decades.

Can we please keep meat of equines and cows separate. I talked humans and drugs.

I feel All Equines should have to have an up to date passport (a record that documents all medications that horse has received during ownership.) If a horse goes to auction that horse should have to have it’s passport or it shouldn’t be aloud for sale. If kill buyers buy horses then those horses passports should have to be signed off into their names and the records stay with the horse all the way down the slaughter pipeline! No more getting away with selling horses with drugs in their system for meat! This needs to be signed into a law for all states in America… One step closer to stopping horse slaughter altogether in this country! Just my point of view…

Ramona…doesn’t matter if they have a passport, chip or “papers”….a KB has a fill quota….he/she gotta horse/donkey/mule?…it ships to the kill floor. And they present the papers at the border(s), killfloor.

Doesn’t matter.

It is a dirty industry and now we see, our traditional meat sources are subject to the same forged paper work, dishonest vets, unethical auctions, killfloor operators and owners of same meat”stuffs”. AND highly self regulated.

Passport laws would not help one bit. We know that ALL who participate in equine slaughter are cruel, unscrupulous liars. Why would we expect a moral business ethic when dealing with such people.
If horse slaughter re-opens in USA, you can bet that WE will have contaminated beef.

I have worried my self sick over the horses that have gone to slaughter, to no avail. Everyone is now worried about the human consequence? Well, now I’m thinking GOOD, they will get what they deserve! I really hate to be this way, but we have been warning them for months on end and no one, NO ONE has been heeding our messages to stop the tide, stop the slaughter! Maybe it will have to come from the other end of the pond! I wonder how long that will take. I guess we will just have to wait and see since our cries continue to be on deaf ears!
PLEASE STOP THE SLAUGHTER!!!

The people who were sold horse meat as beef do NOT deserve the consequences. Many of them live in countries where it isn’t legal or acceptable to sell horse meat. Look how difficult it is to keep horse slaughter out of our country when the majority of people are consistently against it. How can we hope to have a say about what they do in another country?

I received the following from the members of the Oklahoma House members this morning. It may be that flooding reps and senators–were past that. Instead we may have to flood the governor. But I confess this whole political thing is above me.

Below is my “take” on what is happening with the horse slaughter bill. Skye McNiel is simply the one carrying the bill. She does believe in it (very misguided in my mind) but I don’t think it’s her auction house business that will carry the day. Most of my rural guys tell me it’s highly unlikely OK will be the state to actually build a plant (we don’t really have the critical mass – thankfully- to carry it through). Most think it will be TX or another state. Those in favor (82!) truly believe they need a cheaper method to dispose of aged, diseased animals. If that were the only issue – it would be different. Why not take responsibility for horse ownership and put the burden on the owner?
RESPONSE to the dozens of emails: I have opposed and voted against this bill from the beginning and have worked with the Tulsa World and others to help educate folks about the problems with this bill. I have talked with folks from other states who have fought these battles of former existing facilities in their communities and tried to bring this discussion to the House floor.
But, I must tell you – the 82/14 vote (DO PASS) on the House floor last week was very discouraging. The issue is being pitted as the Humane Society against the Farm Bureau.

Just yesterday my vet here in Tulsa argued that we need a “humane” method to dispose of horses. She asked me how I’d feel if cat and dog euthanasia were banned tomorrow? She believes that even responsible horse owners do not have an adequate method to dispose of aging/diseased animals. I don’t believe this bill to allow slaughter houses is the answer. Surely we can find a better method.

During debate pictures of the MX and Canadian slaughter yards looked as bad as the former ones in TX and Missouri. So – we need to focus on environmental studies and regulations that would make mandatory inspections, etc.

This may be a decision the Governor must decide. Neither the House or Senate opponents can stop the movement.

Look to your traditional livestock, Oklahoma and other producers! Start slaughtering horses and you’ll give tremendous traction to put the National Animal Identification System in place PRONTO!
Just wait for what will be coming down the pike after the EU horse meat debacle and Russia’s ban on U.S. cattle meat and hog meat!

Excerpts from Animal ID and International Trade. The full text has been archived on the USDA website so I can’t currently provide a link, but I’m sure you get the gist of what I’m saying.
____________

Bruce I. Knight
Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs
Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, Houston, TX
March 4, 2008

Good morning. I’m glad to be here today. Your stock show is one of the best in the U.S.—a true summit for cattle producers in the Americas.

The U.S. National Animal Identification System—NAIS—is a critical tool for protecting herds in the U.S. against animal diseases. Increasingly, it will be vital to marketing our livestock, particularly beef—both here and abroad.

This morning I want to tell you where we stand on animal ID, how we plan to move this program forward and why it matters—whether you raise beef, horses, sheep or goats in Texas or in Mexico or in another country that’s one of our trading partners. It’s one of USDA’s top priorities—as our new Secretary of Agriculture, Ed Schafer, made clear when he spoke to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association recently.

I’m pleased that over the past 18 months, the discussion on animal ID in the U.S. has changed. It’s no longer about whether or not animal ID is a good idea. It is a good idea—and I think almost everyone now acknowledges that. The business plan sets priorities, focusing on areas where we
can accomplish the most to reach critical mass—getting 70% of the animals in a species identified and traceable to the premises of origin.

Our top priority is the primary food animals—cattle, sheep and goats, swine, poultry—plus competition horses because they move around a lot.

We set the priorities based on:
• Potential for a disease event of significant economic impact
• Risk of disease to human health
• Current traceback capabilities
• Economic value, and
• Potential for disease to spread to other livestock species.

We are looking to our vets to reach critical location points where animals are commingled—like auction barns, feedlots and fairgrounds—and rodeos! We have a lot of ground to cover, but we are determined to succeed. We believe this study will provide empirical evidence that animal ID is worth the effort we’re putting into it—and that producers put into it also.
____________

At that time APHIS was drafting proposed regulations that would require the first point of import and the first point of export to be registered premises. I don’t have a link to that, but I’m sure it’s somewhere online.

Now the NAIS will be able to go way beyond disease by collecting DNA, which allows traceability back to where the animal was bred. Supercomputers will make data collection and storage viable. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA7Sm8BxmoY

AQHA has required DNA testing on all QHs for quite some time now..that is just used to identifify that it is from the parents on its registration papers…horses at most auctions these days are sold without papers of any breed..becausemost horses ago to kill buyers..higher dollar horses are sold with their papers at better breed sales I would refuse as a horse breeder and owner to ever provide documentation or microchips so they could be slaughtered somewhere down the line..unless to have a chip put in to say they have had Bute..so they wouldn’t be slaughtered..horses are not and will not be raised for horsemeat..they are hnjot part of the food chain..because as I have said before…horses are not efficient as other farm animals at converting food to fat..and if you try to frce feed they will colc and die or founde..they have only 1 stomache to process food and are extremely susceptable to gut pain..horses have more bone to meat ratio..legs are taller than meat animals..it is not a animal that is efficient to raise for meat..horses are much more active than meat animals..and burn up calories..the only way these dealers can afford to buy them is low maket prices..when market prices are high..few horses go to slaughter..and how can the use diseased horses in te food chain..they cannot use diseased cows for food..and what of all the HYPP positive QHs floating around out there-1/3 to1 /2 are linked to that gene that can kill a horse in the blink of an eye..does the FDA have standards for that..hell no..we know it can kill a horse at anytime triggered by type of food or stress…no one has any human tests on that because we donot raise horses for food

There has been talk about having a tatoo registry to indicate you donot want your horse to go to slaughter…horses can change hands many times in their lives..so it would need to start where the foal is born to protect it for life..this is something I could get behind and pay for if it was ENFORCED..as it is not being enforced with branded mustangs..semis should be stopped at all borders for horses to be inspected for those brands..If the gov would not do so because of funding..I suggest they allow someone like animal angels to be funded for it, private/public..we need people who are dedicated to doing this for the animals..not some fricking beuracrat or for profit private business handling any of these kind of inspections

I have a question. As a carnivore I do eat meat. I eat less red meat because of cost and because red meat just isn’t all that healthy day in and day out. I eat more chicken and now ground turkey. I like manwiches–except I use ground turkey.

How do we know that turkey and even chicken breasts are clear of horse?

I am so upset by all of this. I don’t like veggies but in the past week I’ve gotten a big of carrots and celery from Costco. Celery and crunchy almond butter are great! Yesterday I even got a bag of sugar snap peas. I like those uncooked and cold. I think it’s the crunch I like. Memories of veggies being cooked to mush make it impossible to eat them any other way.

I’ve even got way better about fruit. Oranges, grapes, apples and more have found their way into my home.

Yet I still have questions. When something is labeled “organic” how do we know it really is. Who is checking fruit and veggies? The very people who are saying my hamburger is horse free? Consumer faith isn’t just unique to Europe right now. I’ve lost mine.

And even if you buy grass fed beef–which is suppose to be as pure as you can go–you still have slaughter to deal with. And somewhere in this chain that’s when horse could be added while vets look the other way.

I am sticking to just cigarettes coffee and alcohol…pick your poison..try to find GMO free vegtables…because it is hard to find seeds that are untreated…And yes I gave my ground turkey meatballs the stink eye and then threw them away…nothing ground and nothing in a can or frozen that I did not cook..I gave up fast food for the most part..lunchmeat..out..horsemeat is so cheap compared to everything else..that I am not surprised I am getting no answer from the FDA for results of testing..they know its going to hit the fan here..They will have a class action lawsuit in the US…the things I know that are given to performance show and race horses don’t even get mentioned as being tested for in any of these articles..eating my own family members would be less toxic and more acceptable to me

Does anyone but me see the craziness of the national attention to Lance Armstrongs illegal drug use in sports..but those same drugs used in the food you and I eat. doen’t register as a problem..bad sportsmanship is more important than a toxic food supply

You need to find more local sources for your meat and even vegetables. There are more harmful things lurking on your vegetables than on your meat, including human feces, especially if your food travels a long way, like from South America. If you buy your beef from a local producer and have it butchered locally, you can be sure there is no horsemeat in your burger.

We produce beef (so, I’m sure of our source and sure it’s drug free), but every year that goes by we seem to be eating less and less of it, more fish, more chicken, more veggies and legumes. But I’m still pretty careful about my sources because we can’t trust the big international food companies.

The BLM is at selling them & the Government is turning their heads because they want them gone. Corporate Geed at it again. Stop the slaughter. Protect our American Heritage. Protect our wild horses! They should be protected.

There is an artcle on MSN news—“US eating horse meat? Unlikely, but tests rare”–if someone can post this(sorry my lousy computer carrier won’t let me)-I think people hear might find it interesting- if not look it up and read yourself we also could us some anti horse eating feedback there.

Here are some of my most immediate questions in relation to the BLM and slaughtering wild horses that maybe you would graciously address.

***What was the BLM’s Wild Horse & Burro Chief’s response to this email exposed in the 2008 Team Conference Call Report, which stated: “Sally had an e-mail from a person in Canada who wants 10,000 horses that he would slaughter the horses and send them to a third world country. Don is going to send the e-mail”.

***Why did the BLM guy from Oregon, Jim Johnson say, “Jim said he has a demand for horses going to Denmark, but they are having a problem getting titled horses”? Why would a BLM employee have knowledge of and personally reference that HE has a demand for horses to ship to Denmark for slaughter?

***What did the Team mean when they said, “Having horses rendered would need to be done instead of selling horses to slaughter”?

Yes, Louie, what EXACTLY did these BLM officials mean when discussing how America’s wild horses fit into the global market for horse meat? Every single advocate needs to hammer on these questions after reading the links you shared. This is NOT a new issue, it’s just been kept quiet and advocates have failed to keep focus on it. It’s like seeing the red flag but not really doing anything about it. We have to make them accountable for this horrific TRUTH that has been uncovered. I don’t care if it was in 2010, it STILL PERTAINS!

I read & commented on the MSN article-but couldnt bring it here!! Computer literate? not much!
Quite an informative articale but reading the comments really ticks me off. People are so shallow only see it as a joke. I get so spoiled reading everyones emails here – sort of cultural shock to go to some of these other places.

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